Saturday, November 28, 2015

I'm currently collecting obituaries for people who have connections the Socorro, New Mexico area. This includes people who lived and died elsewhere. If you have an obituary that you would like to share, please scan it and send it to me at info@socorrogrant.org. You may also send me transcriptions that you made of obituaries. If you have a link to a specific obituary that is online, please send it to me.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

On 21 September 1818, residents of the village of Belen were recorded on a list when they made contributions to the same Navajo war campaign that Socorro residents contributed to. The Belen list is four pages long. At some point I may analyze this list as I did with the Socorro list, but for now I want to mention just a few names on the list as they pertain to early Socorro families:

Luis Chaves may be Luis Maria Chaves, the husband of Maria Isabel Padilla. Some of Luis' children, all of whom were born in either the Plaza of Los Garcias or Belen proper,would later live in the Socorro area. Sixty-year old Luis, without his wife, was living in Sabino in 1833.

Santiago Torres' wife Maria Barbara Ortiz gave birth to many, if not all, of their children in Belen. The earliest record that shows Santiago Torres in Socorro is one from 26 December 1822 when he and his daughter Maria Guadalupe were padrinos (godparents) of Juan Estevan Torres, the son of Santiago's Indian servant Josefa Torres. The family of Santiago and Barbara (Ortiz) Torres are listed in the 1833 census of La Parida, a community near Socorro. Many of their descendants lived (and still live) in the Socorro area.

(Don) Paulin Baca (Paulino Baca) was the son of Juan Francisco Baca and Francisca de Jesus Sandoval. As such, he was the brother of Dionosio Antonio Baca, a founder of Socorro. Paulin and his wife Maria Lugarda Tafoya remained in Belen. However, some of his descendants found their way down to Socorro.

(Don) Juan Jose Baca was the son of Juan Felipe Baca and Maria Isabel Baca. He was the brother of Juan Dionosio Baca, a founder of Socorro, and the cousin of the similarly named Dionosio Antonio Baca. Juan Jose Baca and his wife Margarita Chaves also remained in Belen. Some of his descendants later lived in Socorro.

(Doña) Juana Maria Baca, was the wife (maybe widow?) of Jose (Francisco) Pino. She was another child of Juan Francisco Baca and Francisca de Jesus Sandoval. It appears that she and descendants remained in the Belen area.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Juana Andrea Montoya's two husbands are both descendants of the founders of the Socorro Land Grant. Juana Andrea Montoya, born 30 November 1883, was the daughter of Jose Casmiro Montoya and Manuela Abeyta.

Juana Andrea Montoya first married Miguel Marquez 18 August 1900 in Socorro, New Mexico. They had one child, Manuelita Marquez who was born circa 1901 and died 40 years later on 3 November 1941.

Miguel Marquez was the son of Jose Apolinario Antonio Marquez and Juana Maria Bartola Lucero. Jose Apolinario Antonio Marquez's maternal grandparents were Jose Antonio Molina and Maria Guadalupe Romero. I have identified Jose Antonio Molina as one of the early settlers of Socorro through his listed contribution to the Navajo Campaign of 1818. Molina's father-in-law, Santiago Romero is also on that list.

Juana Andrea Montoya's second husband was Ignacio Torres, the son of Jose Crespin Torres and Maria Andrea Trujillo. Ignacio and Juana Andrea married on 25 August 1906 in Socorro. Ignacio Torres has five ancestors on the 1818 Navajo Campaign list. Great grandfather Juan Montoya and Juan's father-in-law Francisco Xavier Garcia Jurado are on the list. Ignacio's great grandfather Juan Antonio Trujillo, and Juan Antonio's father Juan Agustin Trujillo are also on the list; as is Ignacio's 2nd great-grandfather Pedro Antonio Silva.

Juana Andrea Montoya herself is not descended from people on the 1818 list, however it is likely that at least a few of her ancestors were early settlers as they are related to people on the list. As example, her great-grandfather Francisco Antonio Montoya was the brother of Ignacio's great-grandfather Juan Montoya.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Among the names in the 1818 list of Socorro residents who contributed goods to a military campaign against the Navajos is a man by the name of Juan Montoya. Juan Montoya is as generic of a name that a person can find in New Mexico. It is very easy to confuse various men by that name - especially in Socorro where the Montoya surname is common. What is worse is when a person with a common name has more than one wife. A certain Juan Montoya is a case in point.

I figured that Juan Montoya, who was married to Maria Manuela Garcia (Jurado) was one of the men enumerated in the early 1818 Socorro list. Although I have yet to find a marriage record for this couple, their first daughter Maria Josefa Montoya was born on 6 December 1819 in Socorro, New Mexico. The baptism was record in Belen, as the San Miguel Church in Socorro had yet to be built. Josefa's brother Juan Nepomuceno was born on 11 March 1822. Through his San Miguel baptism, I figured out that Juan Montoya's parents were Antonio Montoya and Guadalupe Salazar, while Maria Manuela Garcia Jurado's parents were Francisco Xavier Garcia (Jurado) and Maria Josefa Sanchez. Francisco Xavier Garcia Jurado was another founder of Socorro; he was also enumerated in the 1818 list.

In the 1845 Spanish Census of Socorro, don Juan Montoya and Maria Monica Ortega are listed with three children: Pedro, Juan de Jesus and Francisco. Previously I found the baptisms for Jose Pedro and Juan de Jesus Montoya in the Socorro church records as children of Juan Montoya and Maria Manuela Garcia Jurado. As such, I deduced that those two children mentioned in the 1845 census were the same children, with Francisco being the son of Juan Montoya and one of his wives. Maria Monica Ortega is listed as 25 years old, while Francisco was 8. It is very possible that Francisco was Monica Ortega's son, so I have him listed as such. I have yet to find a baptismal record for him.

By 1847, Monica Ortega had passed away. On 15 August 1847, the Socorro marriage record of Juan Montoya and Maria Tomasa Luna indicated that Juan was a widower of his second marriage to Monica Ortega. This means that Juan was married three times. Although the marriage record does not indicate who Juan Montoya's parents were, by piecing together all of the clues, it appears that this is this same Juan Montoya. As such, it is very probable that Juan Montoya, the son of Antonio Montoya and Guadalupe Salazar, was married to three women: Maria Manuela Garcia Jurado, Maria Monica Ortega and Maria Tomasa Luna.

For source citations of the above article, and for a list of Juan Montoya's descendants, click on the link below: